“Escaped convicts!” Sadie cried into the megaphone, addressing the officers who were still staring up at the sky. “We have escaped convicts!”
Nothing in her police training had prepared her for this. She watched, numb, horror-struck, as the scene unfolded around her. The national guard stopped firing into the sky and changed tactics, this time charging the convicts who, being human, weren’t impervious to being battered by riot shields.
But the vampires hovering above them weren’t going to let the police take down their partners in crime. They swooped down from where they’d been hovering, like birds of prey, and pounced. Once again, shots ran out, but Sadie knew bullet were useless against this vampire army. The little metal pellets ricocheted off them, doing little more than slowing them down for a second.
Sadie caught a glimpse of Brent Waywood amongst the rabble. He was wrestling with a vampire in a cheerleader outfit, who snapped her bared fangs at him. Watching her partner grapple with a girl half his height, who couldn’t weigh more than 100 pounds, was a sight Sadie could hardly comprehend.
Finally coming to her senses, Sadie realized the best thing she could right now was evacuate the civilians. Many houses and shops were already empty, their doors and windows smashed in. Others were blazing infernos. But somehow, through all the chaos, Sadie heard someone crying.
She raced away towards a parking lot where the noise was coming from. She saw that two bodies were lying on the tarmac face down. It was a man and a woman and they were both clearly dead. The crying noises were coming from behind a row of parked cars.
Sadie rushed over. Behind the cars she saw two teenage girls crouching, huddled together. When they saw her, they both leapt to their feet and screamed.
“I’m not a vampire!” Sadie said.
The girls clutched each other and began to tremble. But they seemed to believe Sadie.
“I’m a police officer,” Sadie added, trying to calm the girls with her voice, “and I can get you to safety.”
Even as she said it, she wasn’t so sure she could. What if the vampires had reached the station? What if it wasn’t just New York that was overrun with them, but the whole world? Could Sadie be witnessing the beginning of the end of the human race?
Whatever thoughts and doubts raced through her mind, Sadie knew she had to try. She hadn’t become a police officer to baulk at the sign of danger. If the only thing she achieved this evening was stopping two young girls from losing their lives in a brutal, violent manner, then she was going to do it.
Sadie gestured to the girls with her hand, palm up and inviting.
“I can take you to my car,” she said. “Drive you somewhere safe.”
“There is nowhere safe,” one of the girls cried. She was rocking backwards and forwards, her knees tucked into her chest, and her gaze kept darting over her shoulder at the bodies in the parking lot.
“Do you know them? Sadie asked gently.
The girl dissolved into sobs. Her friend put her arm around her.
“They’re her parents,” the second girl said.
Sadie felt overwhelmed with sadness. She couldn’t get her head round what was happening. It was as though the world as she knew it had been flipped on its head, like she was living a nightmare from which she knew she would never wake up.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Sadie said, trying to be sympathetic. “But we can’t stay here. If we leave town we might have a chance.”
“I’m not leaving them!” the first girl screamed.
Her friend looked torn with indecision. She didn’t want to abandon her friend in her time of need; but she also didn’t want to die tonight.
“Look,” Sadie said to the girl who wasn’t crying. “I’m going to get my squad car. When I get back, you can either come with me or not. If you don’t, I’ll just find someone else who needs saving. Got it?”
The girl bit her lip and nodded.
Sadie glanced over her shoulder, trying to see if the way was clear. When she turned back to the girl, she said, “Tell me your name.”
“I’m Becca,” the girl said. “This is Jasmine.”
“Okay,” Sadie said. “Sit tight, Becca. Keep her calm. I’ll be back for you in a minute.”
As Sadie raced back across the streets for her squad car, she noted that the chaos had intensified. The national guard were locked in a vicious battle with the escaped inmates and the vampires were piling into the fight. But coming from the same direction as the jail, Sadie saw a man flying through the air. When he landed on top of a police truck, the vampires stopped what they were doing and turned to him. He was clearly some kind of leader, someone important.
The vampires crowded forward, trying to get closer to the man. On the floor lay a heap of injured officers and military personnel, some dead, some dying. Sadie turned away, not able to cope with the images in front of her.
Then she saw the man point towards the direction of the Hudson river, and one by one the vampires took to the sky, following whatever command he’d given them. Sadie gasped as she watched them soar into the air like a flock of enormous, deadly birds. Vultures, she thought. They’re nothing more than vultures.
Sadie finally reached her car and leapt inside. The voice of the police chief was sounding out from the radio, frantically asking for information.
“You sent us into a war zone!” Sadie shouted into the radio.
“Marlow?” the chief replied. “Marlow, thank God you’re alive?”
“Yes. I’m alive,” Sadie replied emotionlessly. “Which is more than can be said for the rest of the officers you sent blindly into battle.” Sadie was livid, unable to hold back her anger. “How could you do it? You knew they were vampires! You knew the girl in the psych ward was speaking the truth! Why didn’t you send for wooden stakes and Holy water rather than sending the army out there with guns?”
From the other end of the line, all Sadie heard was the sound of static.
Typical, Sadie thought.
The chief wasn’t one to admit to mistakes. Sadie pressed the respond button of her radio again.
“Chief, I’m bringing in two civilians. You might be interested to know that the vampire army is heading towards the Hudson River. So if you want to send any more innocent officers to die, that’s the place to go.”
She wrenched the radio so hard the wire snapped, then slammed it back into its holster. She didn’t hear anything more from the police chief. There was no drill for this, no way of knowing what to do for the best, and so Sadie decided that all she could and would do was rescue the victims. She’d find somewhere safe for them, then one by one she’d search for survivors of the brutality.
She started the car and drove as fast as possible back to the place she’d left Becca and Jasmine. When she got there, she saw that the two girls had been surrounded by a group of men in prison uniforms.
“Oh no you don’t,” Sadie said, gritting her teeth.
She leapt from her car and raised her gun.
“Step away!” she shouted.
The convicts turned. When they saw they were up against a lone policewoman, they smirked.
“This is your last warning,” Sadie said. “Hands where I can see them or I’ll shoot.”
The escaped men must have felt invincible after walking side by side with a vampire army. They clearly must have forgotten that they were mere mortals.
As they charged her, Sadie squeezed the trigger. One, two, three, four, a bullet for each of them. They fell to the floor like bowling pins.
Becca and Jasmine stood there, wide eyed.
“Get in,” Sadie commanded.
The girls didn’t need telling twice. Gone was Jasmine’s determination to stay with her dead parents, overtaken by her natural instinct to survive. Becca, on the other hand, wasn’t about to argue with someone who’d just shot dead four men in front of her very eyes.
With the two girls safe in her car, Sadie tried to work out her options. At this point in time, they seemed prett
y limited. All she could think to do was get as far away from where the vampires were heading, and that was the Hudson river.
She hit the accelerator and steered the car away.
“Wait!” Jasmine cried. “What about Scarlet?”
Sadie looked at her in the rear view mirror. Scarlet. That had been the name that Maria had been babbling about back in the insane asylum.
“Who’s Scarlet?” she said. “Do you mean Scarlet Paine?”
It was Becca who replied. “Yes. She’s our friend. Or at least she was.” She looked at Jasmine. “It’s too late for Scarlet. She’s one of them now.”
Sadie watched the two girls conversing in the mirror, her mind a swirl of thoughts. If Maria had been right about the vampire war, then maybe she was right about the only person being able to stop it being Scarlet. And if Sadie was the only person alive at this point in time who knew that piece of information, then that meant she had to do something with it. She may be the one person who could stop this mess.
Jasmine was shaking her head, not ready to accept what her friend was telling her.
“Scarlet wouldn’t be a part of this,” she cried. “You know she wouldn’t!”
“We have to save ourselves,” Becca said.
“We’ve already lost Maria,” Jasmine sobbed. “We can’t lose Scarlet too.”
Sadie had heard enough. These girls knew Scarlet and Maria, the two names that, in the midst of all the chaos, made sense to Sadie.
She slammed on the brakes and made a sharp U-turn. From the back seat, the girls screamed.
“Where are we going?” Becca demanded as the car began to race in the opposite direction, towards danger rather than away from it.
“Sorry, Becca,” Sadie said. “But Jasmine’s right. We need to help Scarlet. She might be the only person in the world who can save us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Kyle sauntered along the road. Shady walked by his side, his right hand man. Together they’d turned a dozen men from inside the prison and had let another fifty loose on the streets. By the time they’d finished their rampage on the prison, there wasn’t a single guard left alive.
Now they were ready to unleash terror on the streets of this town. They followed the trail of destruction that had already been left for them by the escaped inmates, passing over turned cars and burning houses on the way, Kyle leading the small band of newly turned vampires. His group comprised all the men he’d been closest to whilst behind bars, the ones who’d backed him in scraps or who had beaten up another inmate on his behalf. They were men who were loyal to him and grateful for the freedom and power he had gifted them with. It was a gratitude that extended far beyond the usual sire bond. These were men who would lay their lives down to serve him.
Kyle wanted to make sure his followers got a good show on the way into battle. He went up to an electrical store and used his super vampire strength to smash the windows with his fists. The crowd roared their approval. Kyle jumped in through the broken window and began wrenching the TVs from the wall, making blue sparks of electricity explode all around him like fireworks. He threw the TVs on the ground and his followers cheered at the mere senseless violence of it all. The store was aflame by the time they left it.
Kyle decided for his next trick he would show off the flying skills he’d gotten a chance to perfect. He wrenched a street lamp out of the sidewalk and flew up into the air with it in his hands. Then he threw it like a javelin. It arched through the air before smashing through a moving car, spiking it into the ground. The dazed driver stumbled out of the wreck of his car, and his band of followers pounced on the stumbling man and devoured him.
In the sky ahead, a swarm of his vampire children were soaring through the skies. But something caught his attention. In the sky, far in the distance, the other side to where his vampire teen army was flying, he saw the lone silhouette of a girl flying across the sky at the speed of light. She was heading towards the Hudson river. Some instinct in Kyle told him that it was the girl he’d been chasing all this time.
Scarlet.
Kyle raced into the epicentre of the chaos. The inmates he’d liberated earlier were being beaten by the national guard. But the high school vampires were feasting on the police in turn. The whole thing was a beautiful mess.
Kyle leapt onto the hood of a police truck, using it like a stage. It was time to lead his army into battle.
“My children!” Kyle cried, addressing the mob.
The vampires looked up at him, ready and willing for their sire to give them commands. They looked at him adoringly, as though he were a god.
“It’s time for us to start the war!” Kyle continued.
He leapt into the sky and the vampire army cheered and swarmed after him, following their leader. Kyle felt more powerful than he had in his life. As he flew at the front of his army of vampires, leading them into battle, he noticed dawn was beginning to break. It had been the most amazing night of terror and destruction. By the time the sun rose, Kyle would be King of a whole new race and the humans on earth could begin counting down the days to their inevitable extinction.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN
Caitlin felt sick to her stomach as the world swirled around her. Clutching onto Caleb for dear life, she worried that if she let go he may disappear into the ether and become stuck between realms. All around them, lights and colors flashed. It was impossible to tell if they were facing up or down. All they could feel was the terrifying forward momentum and the sloshing sensation as though they were in a boat on the waves.
Then all at once, everything stopped. They found themselves standing on the banks of a river.
“The Hudson?” he asked.
“Yes!” Caitlin cried, relieved that they had survived the journey through time and space.
Then she saw a sight that made her heart lurch.
“Look!” she cried, pointing into the sky. “It’s Scarlet! It’s really her!”
Caleb watched his daughter race across the sky, heading for the estate on the banks of the Hudson.
“Come on!” he cried, grabbing Caitlin’s hand.
They began to run towards the mansion. But they hadn’t gotten more than five paces when a swarm of vampires raced over their heads.
“We’re too late,” Caitlin cried, feeling desperation take control of her senses.
They watched, terrified, as the huge black cloud of vampires raced over their heads. They were going towards the estate as well. Caitlin knew then that Scarlet was in peril.
Caitlin was about to charge in the direction of the mansion when all at once, the vampire army double backed on itself. Suddenly, it came right for them.
“Caleb!” Caitlin screamed.
The man leading the army landed in front of Caitlin, stopping her in her tracks. Caitlin’s heart clenched with terror as she came face to face with the man she’d seen her daughter feast on back at Pete’s bar, a time that felt like a million years ago. What was his name?
Kyle.
Kyle sniffed the air like a dog following a scent.
“Mr. and Mrs. Paine,” he said, looking Caitlin and Caleb up and down.
He snapped his fingers and the obedient vampire army took to the skies again, racing off for the estate, following unspoken commands that Caitlin could only assume meant danger for Scarlet.
“I’ve been looking for your daughter all night,” Kyle said, pacing round and round Caleb and Caitlin. “I’m pleased to say that her life will be over by the time the sun rises. I’m going to enjoy telling her how you begged for your lives as I killed you.”
Caitlin couldn’t help but think this was it, that everything was going to end here, now, when they’d been so close to saving their daughter. The thought broke her heart. She felt like a failure. A failure as a mother and a wife. Caleb was right when he’d said it didn’t matter if she survived elsewhere, in another dimension or time. This was the world she lived in, this was the life she was conscious of, and for it to end now was more
than she could bear.
Then suddenly, a roaring sound behind Kyle made him spin around. Someone was charging forward, head down like a quarterback. The person barrelled into Kyle, knocking him off his feet before slamming him into the ground on his back. Caitlin realized with surprise that the person was her brother. Sam.
She felt a flood of love for him as she watched her brother grapple on the floor with Kyle, clearly risking his life to save hers and Caleb’s.
“Go!” he shouted. “Save Scarlet!”
Caitlin didn’t have time to argue. Caleb grabbed her hand and together they raced to the mansion, leaving Sam at Kyle’s mercy.
CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT
Vivian chased Scarlet through the skies, right on her tail. Scarlet must have known she was being chased because she kept looking back over her shoulder. Blake was lagging behind but he still followed Vivian dutifully on her quest to cause pain.
No matter how fast Scarlet was as a vampire, she couldn’t out fly Vivian, who had been more athletic in her human form than Scarlet. Scarlet had just reached the roof of a mansion when Vivian caught her by the ankle.
The two girls went skidding across the rooftop, scraping a path over the tiles and making them fly up all around them. Vivian was immediately in fight mode. She grappled with Scarlet before pinning her down by her arms. Scarlet thrashed like a woman possessed.
“Let go of me!” she screamed.
Vivian laughed maniacally. This was the moment she’d been dreaming of all along—and she was going to squeeze every ounce of pleasure out of it that she could.
“What the hell happened to you?” she sneered. “You look like crap.”
Scarlet was windswept, covered in small nicks and cuts. She had tears in her clothes, mud in her hair, and dirt encrusted on her hands. The sight of her disgusted Vivian.
Vivian reached in her back pocket for her shard of wood and held it up to Scarlet’s neck. Scarlet’s eyes widened at the sight of it. Vivian watched her neck bulge as she swallowed her fear.